The stars will shine bright in Hollywood tomorrow night, when Bryce Harper makes his major-league debut with Stephen Strasburg on the mound for the Nationals. But tonight's series opener at Dodger Stadium is no slouch of a ballgame.

Clayton Kershaw, the reigning NL Cy Young Award winner, starts for Los Angeles. Matt Kemp, last year's NL MVP runner-up, has been playing out of his mind so far this season. And Nationals left-hander Ross Detwiler only boasts an 0.56 ERA entering his fourth start of the year.

Davey Johnson will try out a new-look lineup for this one, trying to stack up as many of his best right-handed hitters as he can. Jayson Werth gets bumped up the No. 3 spot. Danny Espinosa gets bumped down to the 6-hole. Adam LaRoche hits cleanup, but he's the only left-handed batter in the lineup.

I'm not in town for tonight's game, but I've got good news: I just booked a morning flight to LAX, and I'll be reporting live from the scene at tomorrow's extravaganza (as well as Sunday's series finale). Until then, enjoy tonight's game and the conversation…

Morse was injury-prone from his days in Seattle, so it doesn't surprise me if management believes he's a slow healer. He probably won't admit it, but I suspect Davey Johnson had a big hand in lobbying to get Harper up here.

Drew said… Well, Ross has a 1.64 ERA and we certainly can't complain about that. It's good to know we have our stopper on the hill tomorrow to right the ship (and help mix our metaphors.) April 28, 2012 1:02 AM _______________________________I don't know. Jury is still out. Today was a 4.50 ERA. He came back well after the 1st inning. Still good enough to win the game with some run support but lets face it, he had Kershaw on the other side.

After reading the thread: Mick, while I think it's great that you feel comfortable baring your, er, soul here, I fear you may have ventured into the realm of too much information a time or two last night. Thanks for sharing, though.